Page:Samantha on Children's Rights.djvu/83

 enjoy his supper the best that ever wuz, for he and Fidelia wuz talkin' together in a way I hadn't hearn 'em for years. And take Fidelia when she wuzn't so wore out burnin' incense, and br'ilin' steaks and chops and chickens, and drawin' threads out of fine linen and workin' 'em in agin, she wuz a smart woman and very agreeable companion.

Minnie, I noticed, had retired more into the background, as it were; she waited on the table with a different air, less as if she wuz the mistress of ceremonies, and more as if she wuz the helper instead of the giver of the feast.

Well, it wuz on the fifth day, as Alcander and Fidelia and I wuz a-drivin' along through the soft air in the luxurious easy carriage, behind two prancin' horses, real happy and contented, and talkin' good-naturedly, who should we meet but two young folks in a runabout? The young man wuz bendin' fondly over the young woman, so engrossed in conversation that they didn't notice our presence till we got almost up to them. Then they looked up, and we see that it wuz Elinor and Louis Arnold. But wuz it Elinor? Yes, it wuz. But what a change from the pale, hollow-eyed drawn-work stitcher! Her cheeks were pink, and happiness sparkled in her soft blue eyes like two bright stars becalmed in the June heavens. They had made up, and Louis Arnold looked handsome and happy and contented.

Well, I told Fidelia, the next day, that as Josiah had got his business done, I guessed I wouldn't stay any longer, and she bust right out a-cryin' onto my shoulder (it wuz a gray outin'-cloth, and I knew that it would wash, so I didn't care).